Voters queued outside polling stations in India's Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday to vote in the first provincial election being held in a decade in the Himalayan region that has grappled with years of militant violence.

India’s troubled region of Jammu and Kashmir saw a brisk turnout amid tight security as voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in the first regional legislative elections in a decade. The region, which has seen years of separatist violence and is at the centre of a dispute between India and Pakistan,

Security was tight on Wednesday as a phased election for choosing a local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir opened in the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.